Benefits And Costs Of Continuous Process Improvements

There are many costs and benefits from process improvement. The metrics being tracked are expected to shed more light on the quantifiable effects of the process improvement efforts. Currently, the project team believes the benefits of the improvement efforts outweigh the costs. This is all the more significant because the improvements were made in an existing, ongoing project — not one in which the team could start with a clean slate. Among the benefits credited to the project:

■ A higher-quality software is produced, one that is more robust and solves user problems without creating new ones.

■ Less rework is required, so there is lower long-term product cost and shorter cycle time to a useful product.

■ More accurate project estimates are produced.

There are fewer fires to fight. Unforeseen emergencies for management to deal with are now less than one third of what they were two years ago.

■ There are much cleaner releases with far fewer problems seen by the users. This in turn improves the credibility of the developers.

■ The process forces developers to take into account more general needs and to find more flexible solutions.

■ A common process, and the common knowledge base for the project, improves the project continuity, enhances communications, and makes the product more supportable.

■ There are also associated costs, among them:

■ Less responsiveness to enhancement requests: Every enhancement must go through the entire life cycle to a controlled release.

■ Increased cost of initial development.

■ Changed job descriptions: Everyone is responsible for the process, and not just hacking out code. This change in job descriptions has been a difficult and frustrating change for some.

What you need to know about… Project Management Made Easy! Project management consists of more than just a large building project and can encompass small projects as well. No matter what the size of your project, you need to have some sort of project management. How you manage your project has everything to do with its outcome.